Sky Get Wholesale Access to BUUK Full Fibre Broadband Networks

UK ISP Sky Broadband (Comcast) has made no secret of their desire to work with “full fibre” (FTTH) alternative network (altnet) providers (here) and, in keeping with that, they’ve today agreed a new wholesale access deal with the Brookfield Utilities UK Group (GTC / OFNL), which builds fibre optic networks to UK new build homes.

At present BUUK’s Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network is estimated to cover somewhere around 50,000 new build houses across various different developments in the United Kingdom, although readers of ISPreview.co.uk may be more familiar with some of their sibling companies like Open Fibre Networks Limited (OFNL / IFNL) and GTC.

Generally the BUUK group builds open access networks and consumers then order ultrafast broadband services over these through a range of smaller wholesale partners, which includes ISPs like Direct Save Telecom, Seethelight and Pure Broadband etc.

Sky already has an existing commercial arrangement with BUUK, which enables their satellite TV service to be distributed over the company’s FTTH network via a centralised Fibre Integrated Reception System (FIRS). However today’s announcement extends this strategic partnership, meaning that Sky will become an anchor tenant for broadband services in new and existing residential developments connected by BUUK.

Stephen van Rooyen, Sky CEO UK & Ireland, said:

“We’re committed to driving forward ultrafast connectivity in the UK and this deal with BUUK enables us to use our anchor tenancy to unlock infrastructure investment, while entering a new market with significant potential for growth.”

Clive Linsdell, CEO BUUK Infrastructure, said:

“As BUUK continues to increase the speed with which we connect new homes to full fibre broadband, we are excited to deepen our partnership with Sky – the UK’s leading broadband and entertainment provider, present in millions of homes across the country. Together, Sky and BUUK will ensure that more consumers can access ultra-fast broadband speeds on the day they move into their new home.”

As part of today’s announcement BUUK has also confirmed that they’re planning to “rapidly increase” the number of new homes they connect, targeting 200,000 new build properties over the next 12 months.

The move also raises a number of interesting questions, such as whether or not Sky will now offer customers on those new builds different packages, speeds and prices from those of their new “ultrafast broadband” plans via Openreach’s G.fast and FTTP network.

BUUK and Openreach’s asymmetric speed full fibre networks aren’t as far apart as some others and so the potential does exist for a similar package design across different platforms, although services via BUUK’s network do tend to be a little cheaper.

Likewise we’ll be interested to see whether or not Sky’s offer is ultimately better or cheaper than that of BUUKs smaller ISP partners (very possible given Sky’s scale). We’ve asked Sky and are awaiting a response.

UPDATE 4:51pm

We’ve seen a couple of reports stating that this is Sky’s first fibre deal outside of Openreach’s network, which is of course incorrect. Sky has previously worked alongside TalkTalk, and initially Cityfibre, to deploy and offer services via an independent FTTH network in the city of York (as we understand it they remain a wholesale partner on that network). Sky has also previously built some of their own FTTH trial networks.

We believe Sky’s fibre products will be live on OFNL’s network from summer 2020.